Ritsu and the Tanuki
by AngstyYaoiFangirl
Summary: Ritsu is having a hard time at home, when suddenly a strange animal appears. How will this affect Ritsu and his abusive parents. one-shot


It was late in the evening at Tenshou Park. Most of the parents that were usually there had already left, dragging behind them their screaming children who had wanted to stay and play longer. The park was nearly deserted except for one lone figure sitting on a park bench. The person's gaze was stuck on the glistening lake. As we zoom in on the brunette's face we now see tear tracks staining his face and even more tears rolling down from his forest green eyes. Ritsu Onodera was trapped in a sea of pain and grief.

The youth had been crying for hours. From another person's view of the boy's life it would be assumed that he was a fairly good little rich kid with nice, loving parents who owned their own publishing company, Onodera Publishing. He seemed to look like he probably had a girlfriend. However, those outsiders will never know of the underlying problems surrounding the young male.

At Ritsu's expence, his parents constantly fought with one another and his mom would always come home drunk very late at night. If he was lucky enough, his mom would pass out at the entryway. Unfortunately, when she did not, he was victim to her beating him up. His father would shout at his wife as she beat her son, but never intervened to stop it... it was child abuse at it's finest.

At school he did have a girlfriend, or at least he used to have a girlfriend. Ritsu meet Ann in middle school and they had started to date up until quite recently. In fact, they had broken up only today. He had caught her cheating on him with one of the school's jocks. He then found out that the only reason why she even dated him in the first place was for his money.

He was already upset about his girlfriend problem but to makes mater worst, when he came home his dad was the drunk one instead. His dad was not one to drink either. However he was as drunk as drunk could be and unlike his mother when Ritsu's dad got drunk, he would verbally abuse his son, but not beat on him.

After a tormenting shouting match with his father, Ritsu left the house and came to the park to calm down. Like he always did when his thoughts started to grow dark about ending his life.

As he contemplated on these thoughts, a sudden screech brought the broken boy out of his conflicted head and back into reality. Turning his head, he watched as a strange animal limped away as fast as it could, blood trailing behind it, away from what appeared to be a large orange tabby cat. The cat slunk towards the strange wounded animal, preparing for the kill.

Ritsu couldn't bear to see more pain and suffering so, without thinking, he leapt up from his bench and bolted toward the animals, picking up a stone as he did.

"OI! LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Ritsu shouted as he threw his stone at the cat, careful not to hit it, but close enough to scare it away. After making sure the cat was completely gone, Ritsu turned toward the injured animal, cautiously, so as to not scare it anymore.

However, the strange animal was too injured to care anymore. It layed it's head down and closed its eyes, waiting for the it's end, to be delivered by this new creature approaching it.

The animal suddenly felt something gently stroking its fur. It opened its eyes wearily, yet curiously, and saw that the human male was stroking him while speaking in a quiet murmur.

"There there, it's alright, I won't hurt you. You're going to be fine. I'm Ritsu. It's okay, I will take care of you little one," He told it.

The animal didn't understand the words being said, but felt like he knew what the human meant. He relaxed, trusting that he was now in safe hands. Ritsu, sensing that he had gained the strange animal's trust, scooped him up into his arms.

"What kind of animal are you anyway? You look like a raccoon, but you also look like a dog, so what are you?" Ritsu pondered on this for the barest of seconds before realizing that the animal still needed to be bandaged up.

"I'll figure it out later, let's get you all fixed up."

Ritsu made his way back home. When he walked in his mother and father came out of the kitchen shouting at each other again.

"Shoot! I forgot about my home life!" Ritsu thought, panicked. Before he had any chance at hiding the animal or leaving the house his mother noticed him.

"RITSU ONODERA! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA ABOUT WHAT TIM….." his mom had started to shout before stopping mid sentence when she saw what her son was holding.

"Ritsu, what is that?" his mom asked, her voice changing into a calm voice.

Gulping, Ritsu answered. "I don't know... I found it when it was being attacked by a cat."

"Do you see that?" Onodera's mom asked her husband.

"I see it!" Onodera's father answered, surprisingly calm.

Ritsu watched as his mom approached him. Ritsu closed his eyes and braced himself, expecting his mother to yell at him and beat him.

However, what happened next was nothing close to what Ritsu had predicted to happen.

"If you want to keep him Ritsu dear, then we have to fix up his injuries." Ritsu opened his eyes in surprise, he saw warmth and kindness in his mother's eyes. Two things he hasn't received from his mother since his parent's fighting started five months ago.

"That's right son, it won't survive long with injuries like those." Ritsu had gone into an even deeper state of shock as he heard his father speak, coming over and placing his hand on Ritsu's shoulder, giving him a genuine smile.

Ritsu was bewildered as to what was happening. Just moments ago, his parents were fighting and screaming at each other, but as soon as they laid eyes on the animal Ritsu held, they started to act like they had before the fighting.

"What are you doing still standing there Ritsu, go on and attend to that animal." Ritsu's mom gently urged.

Still shocked and confused, Ritsu climbed up the stairs of his house and went to the bathroom where he proceeded to take down the medical supply kit.

"I don't know what's going on right now, but let's clean you up." Ritsu spoke gently to the animal.

Before Ritsu did anything else he bathed the animal until it was squeaky clean. The youth then took out some antiseptic and applied it to the many cuts and scrapes on the animal. The animal winced at the sting, but stayed completely still. It knew that the male human was only helping him. Ritsu then took out some gauze and carefully and expertly wrapped up the animal's wounds. As soon as he finished Ritsu stroked the animal's face.

"There, you're all fixed up now. Let's give you something to eat and drink."

He wrapped the animal in a towel and based back down to the kitchen. When he walked through the door that lead to the kitchen, the first thing that caught the attention of the emerald-eyed boy was the fact that his parents were sitting at the table, holding hands and laughing.

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><p>(Ritsu's POV)<p>

I saw Mom and Dad laughing and holding hands. I haven't heard them laugh like this in a long time! What is happening? Ever since I brought this little guy home, my family has returned to their normal selves.

"M..Mom...c….can I fe..feed..t..the ani...animal?" I stuttered out to my parents, I was terrified that this moment of peace wouldn't last long.

"Go right ahead honey, and when you're done, don't forget to look up what kind of animal that is, alright?" Mom said to me.

"O..Okay mother," I replied before continuing to the fridge.

I looked back at the animal and decided that it is too weak to eat on its own. I grabbed the milk and warmed it up in one of my old baby bottles. I held it up the the animal's mouth and he drank it greedily.

"Hehe, slow down there little one!" I laughed. My parents must have heard me laugh because they then came into the kitchen and smiled. My parents then walked up to me, giving me a big hug.

"We love you Ritsu, never forget that," they said to me.

I was so confused as to why they were only now saying this to me, but I didn't question it.

After some time had passed my parents went to bed. I then decided to hop onto the computer to look up what kind of animal I had.

I typed in the search bar 'animal that looks like a racoon and a dog mixture'.

Bing! Immediately my results came in, and the results read 'Tanuki'. The picture provided also matched what I had.

"Hmm, so you're a Tanuki. I wonder why my family suddenly changed when they saw you though." I voiced my question out loud as I knelt next to the seemingly asleep Tanuki.

All of a sudden there was a deep voice in my head. "I am more than just a Tanuki, I am the young Tanuki prince Masamune Takano, and because you have shown me great kindness I will return the favor tenfold. I have made your family remember who they were and who they care for the most. And since you are so caring I will stay with you. You are my new owner and I love you." I was surprised when I heard this, but then I remembered the Japanese folklore saying that Tanuki were guardians, and immediately felt wonder and gratitude fill me.

"Thank you soo much!" I gushed out, grinning happily.

Soon after that I went to bed. The next morning my parents came out of their room and asked me about the animal.

"So have you figured out on what kind of animal he is and what name to give him?" My mother asked.

I smiled a huge genuine smile before replying. "Yep, he's a Tanuki and his name will be Masamune Takano."

The End

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><p>AngstyYaoiFangirl- Okay Okay I know what yall are thinking,. You're wondering why I made this when I already have 2 stories that need updating plus 11 oneshots I have to make, well you see this was actually a project I had to do. My teacher said she wanted us to write a one page creative story about animals. SO this is what i ended up making, i hope I get a good grade to, I only had to write a one page story but my pride as an author told me no do more so yeah. and i want to give a BIG SHOUT OUT TO MY KOHAI AND EDITOR - httydfreakforever! SHE WAS AWESOME AND HELPED ME EDIT IT TILL LATE INTO THE NIGHT SINCE THIS WAS DUE THE NEXT DAY! THANKYOUUUUUUU KOHAI!Any way tell me what you guys thought of this and what grade you think I should make on this hehe<p> 


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